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Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was an English novelist, generally ranked as the greatest of the Victorian era. His books include A Christmas Carol, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations.

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About Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens was born on 7 February 1812 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and died on 9 June 1870 at Gad's Hill, near Chatham in Kent, aged 58. He was an English novelist, and reference works generally place him at the top of the Victorian era's writers.

His fiction is rooted in Victorian England. Scholars have long read it against the sharp moral contrasts of that society, and his novels still turn up whenever people talk about the period.

The list of major titles is long: A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend. Britannica counts several of these among the best-loved novels in English.

If you are new to him, start with Great Expectations, the title listed here on WebToTell. It is among his most widely read novels, and a good place to find out whether his voice suits you. The edition on this site credits Charlotte Mitchell and David Trotter alongside Dickens. After that, pick another title from the list above and see where it takes you.

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Great Expectations

Great Expectations follows Pip, an orphan raised among the Kent marshes who is suddenly offered the chance to become a London gentleman. Pip narrates as an adult looking back on his younger self, and the novel traces how money, ambition and shame bend his loyalties toward the people who cared for him first. Dickens builds the story around a terrifying graveyard encounter, a stopped-clock house ruled by Miss Havisham, and a fortune whose true source Pip misjudges for years. Serialised in 1860–61, it is among the classic novels to read for its tight plotting, comedy and moral seriousness, and it remains one of the most enduring coming of age books in English. This Penguin Classics edition adds an introduction by David Trotter and editing and notes by Charlotte Mitchell.

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